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December 13, 2010 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
IWPR: While the world may have been shocked by the image of a 20-year-old woman simply known as Aisha who had her nose and ears cut off by her father-in-law after fleeing her violent Taliban husband, Zaiba understood the risk she faced when she ran away from home to escape an arranged marriage in order to wed the man she loved. Full news...
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December 13, 2010 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
The Independent: The most extraordinary failure of the US-led coalition in Afghanistan is that the expenditure of tens of billions of dollars has had so little impact on the misery in which 30 million Afghans live. In a series of interviews, they paint a picture of a country where $52bn (33bn Pounds) in US aid since 2001 has made almost no impression on devastating poverty made worse by spreading violence and an economy dislocated by war. Full news...
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December 12, 2010 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
The New York Times: When Hajji Juma Khan was arrested and transported to New York to face charges under a new American narco-terrorism law in 2008, federal prosecutors described him as perhaps the biggest and most dangerous drug lord in Afghanistan, a shadowy figure who had helped keep the Taliban in business with a steady stream of money and weapons. Full news...
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December 12, 2010 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
The Independent: Mariana lies on her bed in the Sanga Amaj clinic in Kabul. She shares a small ward with 12 women enrolled in the clinic's 45-day residential drug rehabilitation programme. At 22, she is five months pregnant with her fourth child. Her one-year-old son lies in a separate room of the clinic. He is also addicted to opium. Full news...
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December 11, 2010 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
IRIN: The financial costs and serious risks faced by Afghan asylum-seekers in making the long and arduous journey to Europe are no real deterrent when the alternatives are seen as poverty and political uncertainty at home, young Afghans told IRIN. The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) says 26,800 Afghans requested refugee status in 2009 - a 45 percent increase on the year before when 18,500 claims were made. Full news...
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December 10, 2010 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
RAWA News: Let me begin with the unreported news from the ground in Afghanistan exactly nine years ago, that is on November 30, 2001. The relentless U.S aerial bombing and strafing of the Kandahar area in late November and early December 2001 led to dozens, if not hundreds, of innocent civilians dying. Full news...
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December 10, 2010 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
The Associated Press: Several hundred demonstrators, some holding photographs of victims of three decades of war, shouted for justice and peace .... In recognition of International Human Rights Day, about 300 people participated in a demonstration in the capital, Kabul, organized by the Social Association of Afghan Justice Seekers. Full news...
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December 10, 2010 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
IWPR: Although production is illegal, the cannabis grown in Balkh has long been prized throughout Afghanistan for its quality. Three years ago, a successful eradication campaign by international and Afghan forces virtually wiped out opium poppy cultivation in the province. Full news...
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December 9, 2010 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
PAN: Afghan women and girls continue to have their rights trampled due to harmful traditional practices in all communities throughout the country, the United Nations said on Thursday. Releasing a 56-page report, the UNAMA human rights director told a news conference in Kabul that child and forced marriage, giving away girls to settle disputes, exchange marriages and honour killings were occurring in different parts of the country. Full news...
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December 9, 2010 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
Rethink Afghanistan: With millions of Americans out of work, you'd hope that our elected officials would be focused on putting people back to work instead of wasting money on war. If only. While it takes an act of God to get unemployment insurance benefits extended for people who lost their jobs, politicians are spending freely on a war in Afghanistan that's not making us safer. Full news...
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December 8, 2010 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
The Irish Times: IRAN SECRETLY poured millions of euro into the recent Afghan parliamentary elections to stack the lower house with its favoured candidates, senior government officials and diplomats have alleged. Candidates received slush funds of tens of thousands of euro each to pay campaign expenses or to bribe electoral officials as Tehran sought to install friendly members of parliament it was claimed. Full news...
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December 8, 2010 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
IWPR: A NATO plan to arm local militias so that they can protect villages appears to be backfiring, with these commanders harassing, robbing and even killing local residents. The idea of recruiting villagers into local defense programs is a key part of the U.S. military strategy in Afghanistan. But the plan, known as the Village Stability Program, has been controversial from the start, given the country's history of conflict involving unaccountable paramilitary groups. Full news...
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December 8, 2010 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
City State Times: In another hot issue and hot water, United States based company, DynCorp is engaging in taboo activities that humiliates young Afghan males. According to WikiLeaks and other corroborated reports there was party partially thrown by DynCorp for Afghan police recruits in Kunduz Province. During this party Bacha boys were invited to perform a so called “traditional dance”. Full news...
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December 8, 2010 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
The Christian Science Monitor: Nine years and billions of dollars into the Afghanistan war the US government is eager to show progress. There's just one problem, say healthcare officials in Afghanistan. That claim, also peddled by the British government’s aid agency, the World Bank and at times by the Afghan government, isn't true. Full news...
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December 6, 2010 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
Al Jazeera: Saudi Arabia is a key source of funds for armed groups, including al-Qaeda, the Afghan Taliban and Pakistan’s Lashkar-e-Taiba, according to a leaked US state department assessment. In a series of diplomatic cables spanning several years, published by the WikiLeaks whistleblowing website on Sunday, the state department details how such groups continue to seek financing in Saudi Arabia, often posing as pilgrims visiting the Muslim holy sites. Full news...
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December 6, 2010 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
PAN: The Taliban were not behind the slicing off of a woman’s nose and ears in central Uruzgan province, chief of the human rights commission said on Monday. The story of how Aisha Bibi, 19, was mutilated as punishment for running away from her abusive husband and in-laws a year ago caused an international outcry. Full news...
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December 6, 2010 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
Washington Post: Afghans are more pessimistic about the direction of their country, less confident in the ability of the United States and its allies to provide security and more willing to negotiate with the Taliban than they were a year ago, according to a new poll conducted in all of Afghanistan's 34 provinces. Full news...
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December 4, 2010 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
The Wall Street Journal: Kidnapped British aide worker Linda Norgrove was killed by a grenade thrown by U.S. special operations forces in a botched rescue attempt, British Foreign Secretary William Hague said an investigation has confirmed. Ms. Norgrove’s death in Afghanistan in October was initially blamed on her Taliban captors before U.S. forces said they may have been responsible and set up a joint investigation into the death with British military experts. Full news...
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December 4, 2010 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
Reuters: The United Nations on Saturday launched a $678 million humanitarian appeal for Afghanistan, where despite inflows of millions of foreign aid dollars, the world body said about a quarter of the population goes hungry. U.N. Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Catherine Bragg said some 7.4 million Afghans were living with hunger and fear of starvation, millions more rely on food help and one in five children die before the age of five. Full news...
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December 3, 2010 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
The Guardian: Iran is financing a range of Afghan religious and political leaders, grooming Afghan religious scholars, training Taliban militants and even seeking to influence MPs, according to cables from the US embassy in Kabul. The dispatches, relating conversations between American and Afghan officials, build up a picture of mounting Iranian involvement in its eastern neighbours. Full news...
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December 3, 2010 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
Mail Online: Classified diplomatic cables lay bare the extent of corruption at the highest level in Afghanistan, with cash apparently pouring out of the country. One report claims former vice-president Ahmad Zia Massoud flew into Dubai with $52million in cash and was never asked to explain where it came from. Full news...
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December 3, 2010 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
IRIN: Over 80 percent of Afghan women, particularly in rural areas, are illiterate and have very little or no awareness about their human rights, including the right to a fair trial, according to aid agencies. For a woman to refer a case to the police or a prosecutor is widely believed to be pointless, as allegations are not usually taken seriously, properly recorded or acted upon. “Ultimately, authorities are not willing, or are not in a position, to provide women at risk with any form of protection to ensure their safety,” said the UNAMA report. Full news...
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December 2, 2010 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
The Guardian: A scandal involving foreign contractors employed to train Afghan policemen who took drugs and paid for young “dancing boys” to entertain them in northern Afghanistan caused such panic that the interior minister begged the US embassy to try and “quash” the story, according to one of the US embassy cables released by WikiLeaks. Full news...
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December 1, 2010 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
By International Justice Tribune (IJT 118): Transitional Justice has not yet come to Afghanistan, notwithstanding the legacy of three eras of conflict: the communist/Soviet rule (1978–1992), rule of the mujaheddin (1992–1996), and the Taliban regime (1996–2001). This is due mainly to a lack of Constitutional authorisation and statutory tools, exacerbated by the 2010 Amnesty Law and an absence of political will. Full news...
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December 1, 2010 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
IRIN: Uncertain harvests are a perennial risk for rural Afghans, but two events stand out as exacerbating poverty - ill health, and the high cost of getting married, according to a new report. “While health expenditures placed considerable financial strain on households across different wealth groups, they hit the poor particularly hard,” says research by the Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit (AREU). Full news...
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December 1, 2010 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
Rethink Afghanistan: Here’s something to think about when you hear politicians talk about the federal budget deficit: every single Hellfire missile fired in Afghanistan costs USD 58,000.00. U.S. and allied forces are dropping huge numbers of these bombs in Afghanistan this year: So far this year, coalition aircraft have used 4,615 bombs and Hellfire missiles, already exceeding the 4,184 dropped in all of last year. Full news...
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December 1, 2010 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
The Telegraph: Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president announced Thursday would join Friday as the official weekend and be declared holiday for the capital’s five million residents for the remainder of the winter. Kabul’s persistent fog of pale yellow pollution is estimated to hasten the deaths of 3,000 people each year due to respiratory illnesses according to Afghan health officials. Full news...
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December 1, 2010 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
The Guardian: Pakistan's army is covertly sponsoring four major militant groups, including the Afghan Taliban and Mumbai attackers Lashkar-e-Taiba, and “no amount of money” will change the policy, the US ambassador warned in a frank critique revealed by the state department cables. Full news...
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December 1, 2010 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
Orlando Sentinel: Once sharply curtailed because of complaints over civilian casualties, U.S. and NATO forces have ramped up the air war in Afghanistan since this summer. Coalition aircraft dropped 1,000 bombs and missiles in October — one of the highest monthly totals of the 9-year-old war.... So far this year, coalition aircraft have used 4,615 bombs and Hellfire missiles, already exceeding the 4,184 dropped in all of last year. Full news...
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